Nagaland Police urge public to be vigilant on the rising cases of sextortion

Taking into account the rising cases of online fraud and crime prevalent in the state, the Nagaland police have issued a press release urging the public to be vigilant on the increasing cases of cyber frauds, phishing calls from scammers posing as customer executives, fraudsters hacking onto one’s social media accounts.

One recent fraud experienced in the country and now in the state is phishing calls from scammers posing as customer care executives from Vodafone Airtel Jio and offering assistance for upgrading 4G SIMs to 5Gto unsuspecting customers.
 
“The fraudsters send links in the name of SG of telecom companies and if you open the link, there is a risk of hacking the phone. They ask for sharing personal/banking information/OTPs,” mentioned the press statement.

Alerting the public of the prevalent crimes, the Nagaland police mention the methods utilised by the scamsters to fool the public and misuse their social media privacy.

“Another common fraud and still frequently used by criminals is hacking of personal accounts of popular social media apps like Instagram. Facebook and WhatsApp use of the hacked accounts for fraudulent purposes like asking for money/soliciting investments/bitcoins from their contact lists and siphoning money from the accounts of unsuspecting victims. 

Also similar to this is the 'boss/friend impersonation scam where fraudsters steal the identity and photos of the victims available in the internet and access the victims' friends from websites/contact lists and send them messages asking for help in the form of money transfer,” mentions the notification.

Adding further, the notification further states that the public should be aware of the existing crimes such as:-

i) Fake customer care calls from Banks regarding KYC updation/Debit card expiry

(ii) Sextortion where unsuspecting male/female victims accept video calls and
messages from unknown numbers and are black-mailed for money after recording and
morphing/misusing their pictures.

(iii) Fake lottery wins, loan/insurance sanctions, scratch card coupons, investment opportunities, Jobs, electricity bills etc are also commonly used to scam innocent victims.

“Public are again requested to remain cautious and vigilant and not be duped by such scams. The fraudsters are experienced scammers and take extra effort to appear genuine and operate through multiple identities, accounts, phone numbers etc,” concludes the notification.